成人快手

Train and Tube violence

Trouble on the Tube - tackling train violence

Violent attacks on London Underground and rail stations have risen by 14% in the last year.

In one incident, a driver was left with glass in his eye after a brick was hurled through his windscreen, and in a recent incident a commuter was stabbed to death.

Robberies on the Tube have also rocketed by 30%.

But in a time of more high-visibility policing and CCTV, should we really be so scared of travelling on the Tube and trains especially at night?

After all, more than 970 million journeys are made every year and it's only a tiny percentage that results in a crime.

Horrific attack

Janet Rayment's local station is South Bermondsey, but for the past year she hasn't been able to bring herself to use it.

She's been too scared after suffering an horrific attack.

"I was just on my way home when I walked up the path and it was very very dark that night," she says.

Too scared to go by Tube - Janet Rayment

"Suddenly this man just stepped out in front of me - he punched me in the face and I blacked out. When I came to, my nose was pouring with blood and there wasn't a soul about to ask for help."

It was a frenzied and sustained attack that left her needing major reconstructive surgery at King's College Hospital.

"My son Jason couldn't look me in the face and I realised it must be horrendous," she recalls.

"The police said to have done so much damage and broken so many bones, the attacker must have repeatedly hit me in the face after I went unconscious."

Targeting crime

It's Friday night, and the British Transport Police have gathered at Blackhorse Road station on the Victoria Line.

Chief Inspector Jim Nattrass and his team are targeting crime hot spots on the Victoria Line.

"What we're trying to achieve here is to deal with not just crime but the perception of crime," he says.

Targeting crime on The Tube - British Transport Police

"It's a far safer environment than people give it credit for. We're here to deal with the very lowest level of issues that matter to commuters: things like graffiti, gangs of youths.

"It's time to reassure people and to make a difference - a difference that will stick."

The chances of being mugged on a Tube are far less than on the streets above.

But with robbery up by 35%, there's a new strategy of 'reassurance policing'" which takes a zero-tolerance approach to low-level crime, and aims to reassure travellers with a highly-visible police presence.

Despite that, the Tube remains essentially a metal box with no escape route once the doors close.

Mobile crime

At around six feet tall, Brian Peacock's no pushover for a mugger - but he knows only too well the dangers of being cornered.

"I was just texting my girlfriend to say thanks for a very nice night," he said.

"Then I was aware of a guy coming down the train and he came and sat next to me.

Brian Crowther's attacker was never found

"At which point I thought - I don't like this. Then he made a grab for my mobile.

"I moved it out of his grasp, and with his other hand he swung for me and kept hitting me a with a bottle repeatedly.

"He jabbed it into my eye, blood started really pumping and I thought I'm in a lot of trouble here.

"I ran towards the driver's carriage and it was locked and then I turned to face him, and as he ran towards me I thought: this is it, I thought I'm really going to die."

Brian had several stitches and spent some time in hospital.

He is back on the Tube, but has nightmares and refuses to go on carriages by himself.

His attacker was never caught.

Confrontations

London Underground staff are learning to play their part in defusing potentially difficult situations.

In offices just off Leicester Square, they watch videos which show how to deal with confrontational customers - including those who become violent.

A vast network of tunnels, platforms and station stairwells

"We are giving them the tools to deal with difficult situations and incidents of violence," says training officer Aidan Harris.

Once staff are better trained, they're able to work alongside police and tackle situations before they escalate.

But with thousands of stations across the network, a high-profile police presence at each station is virtually impossible.

The problem is that many stations are now unmanned late at night and even during the day.

This all adds to the feeling of vulnerability.

Staffing the stations

For Janet Rayment the answer is clear.

"They need to find the extra money so they can get in the extra staff and to make them visible," she says, "so people can feel comfortable ands see they are there."

Chief Superintendent Paul Crowther from the British Transport Police admits getting the numbers up can make a difference for them.

Making a difference - additional police officers on the Tube

"We have lots of things in place to give the public confidence," he says.

"We've had an operation running since December, when we saw robberies were going up so we put additional officers out on patrol.

"We now have an extra 40 officers on the lines that run through north-west London and the Silverlink metro.

"And we've had some really good success and a drop in the number of crimes since we took that action."

As for victims like Janet and Brian, their numbers may be relatively small - but the effects they feel will last a lifetime.

And it will take more than a policy of police reassurance before they can come to terms with their experiences.

----------------------------------------------------------------

Sparrows

Spare a thought for the Cockney sparrow

Once you heard them tweeting all over Tooting, or chirping in Camden.

Today there's only silence.

London's cockney sparrow population has been in serious decline since the 1980s. But why?

The Cockney sparrow - Passer domesticus, to give its proper name - has been a symbol of London for centuries.

This popular bird been written about and even sung about.

But in the past quarter of a century its numbers have fallen by a staggering 60%.

Reversing the sparrow's freefall

Worried by the alarming decrease, the (RSPB) has funded a number of research projects.

One is the London House Sparrow Project, which is currently trying to find practical solutions to halt and reverse the sparrow population's freefall.

A recent five-year study suggested the root cause of the sparrow population's problems was a decline in insects.

Bringing back birds - the RSPB is studying the sparrow

Many chicks starved during June and July before leaving the nest and a lack of insect food such as spiders, beetles, crane flies and aphids was a particular problem in suburban areas where trees, shrubs and long grass have been lost.

So is that the case in London?

Has the increase in paved-over front gardens and the use of pesticides driven away our cockney friend?

The RSPB is half-way through a four-year project in London, which is studying sparrow colonies at 64 sites across the capital.

It relies on volunteers keeping an eye on nest boxes and feeding the few birds that can still be seen on the streets.

Ray Dell is a volunteer. He regularly feeds the sparrows in his back garden in Walthamstow, as he has done for 30 years.

"It's compassion, that's why I do it," he says.

"They are easy because they are on my doorstep and in the height of summer I can get something like 40 of them coming down."

Bringing back sparrows

Paul Forecast from the RSPB has some good advice for people like Ray on how best to help the sparrows.

"Sparrows like grain and millet and sunflower seeds," he says.

"Also there are seeds coated in fat. But the thing to avoid is bread - breads can clog up in their guts.

"The other great feed for them is mealworms. It's brilliant for the youngsters who love insects, and this provides them with protein."

Paul says this sort of feeding is now sadly needed because numbers of sparrows have declined so drastically.

One explanation is the way we now build houses.

"Sparrows like to nest in eves and holes in the roof of houses," Paul explains.

"Of course, modern houses aren't built like that - whereas the older ones have plenty of nooks and crannies for the birds to live in."

Some also blame the lack of front gardens - as more and more of us dig them up to park our cars.

Whether sparrows have gone from London because of the lack of gardens, change of house design, pollution or lack of insects, it's clear they are in need of our help.

After all, wouldn't it be a shame if the cockney sparrow was silenced forever?

----------------------------------------------------------------

听